One of the world¡¯s largest companies (I¡¯ll call them Big Giant) is seeking ideas for billion-dollar products, which they define as a billion dollars of sales per year. After seeing their wish list for what constitutes a billion-dollar idea and discussing it with their representative, it¡¯s clear that not only did I meet their criteria, I can also go way beyond. They want to do a, b, and c; I can do that plus x, y, and z¡ªand more. But I had a secret weapon: a head start of years.

Big Giant isn¡¯t the first to spot this ripe opportunity; I¡¯ve worked on it for the past decade building and testing prototypes¡ªsome flops, but even more marvelous ideas that worked better than I forecast. When you begin buying these products¡ªand you will, because they are irresistible¡ªyour face will light up in joy as you wonder if you¡¯ve been teleported into the next century. My technology won¡¯t just be the basis for a single billion-dollar product but a whole family of them, becoming the keystone for disrupting one of the world¡¯s biggest industries.

Over the life of a patent, an idea generating a billion dollars yearly could whip up over $20 billion in sales with significant additional value persisting long after that because groundbreaking ideas often command premium prices and dominate markets long after patent expiration theoretically levels the playing field. Your neighbor could sell more Scotch tape than 3M, but does he?

But Big Giant is in for a big disappointment, because they¡¯re not getting my idea. Either they want to pay peanuts for it or their rep does. No go.

If you¡¯re willing to work for peanuts, someone is bound to accept your offer to devalue yourself. I¡¯ve seen countless examples of this pertaining to inventing, such as one offering $7000 for technology permitting clothes to be washed without water. That¡¯s more of an insult than a payment, like offering Miss America 29 cents for losing her virginity, or Bill Gates giving me a dollar for saving his child¡¯s life. Or me paying even more for requisite supplies: something that will make sense to inventors. Instead of buying new cars, nice homes, big-screen TVs, and taking vacations, I poured every penny into invention development.

Rich people have no problem taking every penny they¡¯re worth¡ªand more, explaining why CEOs with personal jets on Undercover Boss often can¡¯t do half of what their low-level workers do.

Out of principle, and thinking strategically long-term, I¡¯d rather sit on my billion-dollar idea than sell it for peanuts, but I won¡¯t do that because I recently reconnected with a friend with the Midas touch for money. He¡¯s now a venture capitalist, and when I told him about three ideas up my sleeve, he instantly realized their potential, saying ¡°Holy cow!¡± or something similar. He will have the first crack at my thousands of inventions, including the dozens with potential to change life so you can do things people long dreamed of doing and others they cannot imagine are possible. He could be the next Bill Gates or Steve Jobs, with me the Steve Wozniak equivalent supplying the technology. Years from now, when I can tell the rest of this story, it will be a great example of how companies who value fairness will ultimately triumph.

Big Giant could have used my technology to dominate their industry, which is fragmented by several big companies and countless smaller ones. Now that competitors will likely license my ideas, the dream Big Giant hoped for may become the nightmare that bankrupts them or at least sees them become another has-been, like Kodak, Polaroid, Blockbuster, Sears, Borders, Motorola, Smith Corona, RadioShack, Bell & Howell, and MySpace.

¡°¡®Kodak moment¡¯ used to refer to a poignant or special occasion to be captured on film. Since the demise of Kodak, it has come to mean that point in time when you recognize that your organization has been outflanked and rendered obsolete.¡± 
¡ª Roger C. Lanctot in Auto Industry Facing Its Kodak Moment

Netflix founder Reed Hastings approached Blockbuster in 2000 offering to sell 49% of his company to them for $50 million. They said no. Netflix is now soaring; it¡¯s bigger than CBS.

Top executives shouldn¡¯t pat themselves on the back for being miserly in rewarding trailblazing ideas because if they don¡¯t adequately incentivize them by fairly compensating innovators, they often don¡¯t get them¡ªand operating on lukewarm ideas is a recipe for corporate stagnation if not failure.

¡°As the old proverb goes: ¡®There is always a man who can make something a little more cheaply and a little less well. And people who think only of price are that man's rightful prey¡¯.¡± 
¡ª James Dyson

Thomas Edison offered Nikola Tesla $50,000 (equivalent to $1.3 million in 2014 dollars) if he could redesign his inefficient motor and generators. Tesla succeeded in doing that. ¡°In 1885 when Tesla inquired about the payment for his work, Edison replied, "Tesla, you don't understand our American humor," thus breaking his word.¡± And thus losing one of the best inventors in history: one capable of doing things Edison and other experts thought were impossible, such as making motors that operate from AC.

¡°There is no victory at bargain basement prices.¡± 
¡ª Dwight D. Eisenhower

¡°Why didn't a cab driver think of Uber? Why didn't Barnes & Noble think of Amazon? Why didn't Blockbuster think of Netflix? Why didn't Marriott think of AirBnB? ¡­ ¡®Well nobody will ever want to buy a book without human contact, so let's keep building stores,¡¯ said Borders, may it rest in peace. ¡­ One of the biggest common threads between the businesses that have been disrupted is thinking that your business is immune to changing circumstances.¡± 
¡ª Influencer Daniel Burrus in Anticipating Digital Disruption

¡°The horse is here to stay, the automobile is only a fad.¡± 
¡ª Advice given by a bank president to Horace Rackham, who ignored it and invested $5000 in Ford stock, later selling it for $12.5 million, equivalent to $333 million in 2015 dollars (1903)

¡°So we went to Atari and said, 'Hey, we've got this amazing thing, even built with some of your parts, and what do you think about funding us? Or we'll give it to you. We just want to do it. Pay our salary, we'll come work for you.' And they said, 'No.' So then we went to Hewlett-Packard, and they said, 'Hey, we don't need you. You haven't got through college yet.'¡± 
¡ª Steve Jobs

¡°It often takes a rebel to come up with a breakthrough product.¡± 
¡ª Christian Schuh in Want to Come Up With a Hot New Product Idea? Be a Ruthless Competitor

References:

Why Real Innovation Will Not Come From Within Your Own Industry

Influencer Arthur Steinmetz, Chairman, CEO and President at OppenheimerFunds: If You Think Your Company Is Safe from Disruption, Think Again